[senco-forum] ADHD diagnosis

The article below states that 80% of children diagnosed with ADHD will be  
placed on medication... is this correct?

"What is  ADHD?
http://lifestyle.aol.co.uk/parenting/what-is-adhd/article/20070320060309990001
"

"NHS spending on drugs to treat hyperactivity (ADHD) in  children has tripled 
in just five years. We ask the experts what the condition  is, whether more 
children are getting it, and how the drugs can help. 
All children are disruptive, moody and misbehave  sometimes. But spare a 
thought for the parents of children with Attention  Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder 
(ADHD) - their children are like that most of the  time. 
Children with ADHD exhibit extreme disruptive behaviours,  are impulsive, 
hyperactive and can have difficulty concentrating. The disorder,  which is 
usually diagnosed at or after the age of five, is thought to affect  around 5% of 
school-age children in the UK. 
The amount spent by the NHS on drugs to treat ADHD and  similar disorders in 
children trebled to £12 million in just five years from  1999-2003. 
Medication available 
Around 80% of diagnosed children are prescribed drugs, the  most well-known 
of which is Ritalin. The drugs are stimulants which affect parts  of the brain 
that control attention and how we organise our behaviour, and they  can make 
an ADHD child calmer, more focused and less impulsive. 
However, some children with less severe forms of the  disorder may remain 
undiagnosed, and therefore miss out on potentially helpful  medication. 
Andrea Bilbow, director of the National Attention Deficit  Disorder 
Information and Support Service (ADDISS), and herself a mother of an  ADHD child, says: 
"Sometimes it's not spotted quickly. If a child's not showing  severe 
behaviour, it may be put down to something else. "It may be spotted when  they don't 
progress well at school and don't make friends." 
The problem is often recognised by parents who have ADHD  themselves, as it's 
a genetically determined condition. If a family has one ADHD  child, there's 
a 30-40% chance that a sibling will have the condition, and a 45%  chance that 
at least one parent has it. 
Poor parenting not to blame 
Evidence shows the condition isn't caused by poor  parenting, as some parents 
may fear. Rather, it's thought to be due to a  combination of factors 
including changes in parts of the brain that control  impulses and concentration, 
plus genetic and environmental factors. 
Research also suggests that in a small number of cases,  ADHD can be due to 
developmental brain damage caused by things like drinking or  smoking during 
pregnancy, or accidental head injury after birth. 
However, there is a degree of scepticism about the  existence of the 
condition - indeed, even the psychiatrist who identified  attention deficit disorder, 
Dr Robert Spitzer, recently said that up to 30% of  youngsters classified as 
suffering from disruptive and hyperactive conditions  could have been 
misdiagnosed. 
They may simply be showing perfectly normal signs of being  happy or sad, he 
said. But Bilbow stresses: "People who are cynical about ADHD  are those who 
have no experience of it. "It's not to do with bad parenting -  there's a 
strong genetic link, and we're seeing more and more parents who were  diagnosed 
with it as children. 
"There's more awareness of it now, and parents have a  sense that something's 
not right. Before my son was diagnosed with ADHD, people  told me I was a bad 
parent - but he just didn't respond to any of my parenting  skills. It's easy 
to assume the worst when actually there's a much deeper reason  for a child's 
bad behaviour." " 

Best wishes,
Aly

Chair Auditory  Processing Disorder in the UK/APDUK
www.lacewingmultimedia.com/APD.htm 
www.apduk.org